Madness in Curves

Architects and Designers love curves however their favorite tool Revit does not. When it comes to modeling anything that is non-orthogonal or organic, Revit is not so happy.

We at Intec Infra often faced with such challenges. We had one such situation while designing and modeling a Villa in Goa, India. The railing in the entrance portico had a curved profile in plan as well as in elevation. We could not model the shape using Revit's modeling tools. We then adopted a strategy of using multiple tools to model the geometry. We experimented with 3D Max, Blender etc before finally working with Rhino3d and Revit.

In this post, I would like to share with you the workflow that worked for us:

Modeling the Geometry in Rhino3d:

Model the curved surfaces in Rhino3d.

The Rhino model was then saved in SAT format.
Import the Geometry into Revit

Create an In-Place Mass – Generic Model.

Insert the SAT file. Insert > CAD Imports > Select SAT format from the file selection options dialogue. (Modelling with the Origin Point in Rhino consciously as per requirement in project environment helps)
The model with the Generic Model is now done. The model can be cut for showing in Plan and Sections. However this object is not a native intelligent Revit Building element.
Finished Model
Model Geometry will cut. The model is thus useful in creating Plan and Section views.
Hope this helps someone who is faced with a similar situation of having to model complex forms. Suggestions for doing this better are welcome.